‘If you can dream it, you can do it’ believed Walt Disney.
Well, a dream-maker was certainly behind Sunday afternoon’s concert of classical favourites, writes Suzanne Smelt.
And to capture the imagination of the children present (many in Disney-themed fancy-dress), all pieces were selected from Disney’s Fantasia Films (1940 and 2000).
There was no animation but the music was enlivened by the witty and insightful commentary of host Sam Dunkley and by instrumental demonstrations. The hall was buzzing with anticipation well before the start as people of all ages filled up the area and balcony with barely an empty seat to be seen in the latter. And then the lights went low.
In the opening Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Bach) the orchestra showcased its strengths with an expansive string sound and, as ever, first class woodwind playing. The robust brass section certainly raised the temperature during dramatic crescendi which were also heightened by the impact created by the ‘spot-on’ percussion players.
Many more musical delights followed in a selection from ‘The Carnival of The Animals’ (Saint-Saëns). We heard ‘The Elephant’ courtesy of the surprising agile double basses and ‘The Aquarium’ portrayed, in part, by the magic piano fingers of Henry Cash and Slava Sidorenko.
Special mention must be made of cellist Stephanie Eustis’ refined yet expressive interpretation of ‘The Swan’. Beautiful.
Robert Guy held the orchestra at his fingertips with his ‘magic wand’ throughout a dazzling rendition of ‘The Sorceror’s Apprentice’ (Dukas) and in spine-tingling performances of ‘Night on a Bald Mountain’ (Mussorgsky) and ‘Danse Infernale’ (Stravinsky).
Finally, Ukrainian award-winning pianist Slava Sidorenko created a ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (Gershwin) to remember! An outstanding pianist, with musical wizardry through both the quirky passages and in the popular themes.
See him again with the orchestra on April 23 in Dewsbury Town Hall.
I asked a family representing three generations for their thoughts about this concert. All were first-timers at a Huddersfield Philharmonic event.
Annette Crampton, grandma, ‘loved the Beethoven’ and Jayne Crampton-Walker, her daughter, was ‘bowled over’ by the ‘awesome’ Gershwin performance.
This concert attracted a larger and more diverse audience than I have ever seen at a concert hosted solely by an amateur orchestra.
Today, The Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestral Society proved itself to be a ‘dream-team’.
Same again next year please!
Although this was a concert of ‘light’ music for this orchestra, who have recently championed much larger and more complex works, it was nevertheless an achievement in that the music was blemish free, and in that, for once, the Town Hall had a great audience for an amateur orchestral concert.
